Just three days from the midterm elections, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence made a stop in Pensacola, Florida, to urge voters to get out to the polls before Election Day.
They campaigned for Gov. Rick Scott, who is trying to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson; and U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, who is running for governor against Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor.
Pence told an energized crowd at Pensacola International Airport, “The choice in this election ... is a choice between tax hikes and tax cuts. It’s a choice between more government and more freedom. Really, it’s a choice between resistance and results.”
Trump told the crowd his administration of two years has been part of the “most successful political movement” in the history of America.
“The Democrats want to turn back the clock, throw American into reverse, and return power to a corrupt, selfish ruling class that only looks out for themselves,“ he said. ”You know that. That is why this movement started.”
“In the last month alone, we added another 250,000 jobs, and that is despite the hurricanes. You know, hurricanes devastate your monthly and quarterly numbers,” Trump said of the economy, and his administration’s tax cuts and regulation cuts.
“Republicans passed a massive tax cut for working families and we will soon follow it up with another 10 percent tax cut for the middle class,” he added.
Regulation Cuts
In addressing regulation cuts, Trump said, “Remember, I said we want to cut two for every one. Right now, it’s trending at 22 for one, we [add] one regulation and we take out 22.“A highway that would take 20 years to get approved, would go through a process—an environmental impact process,“ he said. ”It would take 20 years ... we [now] have it down to two and a half years.”
Trump said that the cutting of time- and money-wasting regulations does not mean lower environmental standards for projects.
Representing Florida
Trump said he had no confidence in “Rick’s far-left opponent,” Senator Bill Nelson, because in the two years of his presidency, he had never seen or heard from Nelson. “The only one I see is ‘Crying Chuck,’“ he said, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. ”He represents everyone.”“Bill never calls me and says, ‘You know I’d like to get something for Florida,’” Trump continued. “Okeechobee—the dam—we’re doing that because Rick Scott was driving us all crazy in the White House. He was driving us crazy. He’d call again, ‘It’s Rick Scott, Governor, Sir.’
“As soon as I give him that, he wants other things. But honestly, isn’t that what you want?” he said.
“With Okeechobee, I did it for him [Scott] because he was just back and forth, he’s sending me plans, it’s like a construction job and it’s a big deal, and he’s calling,” Trump said. “And then all of a sudden, Bill Nelson heard about it and he had a news conference to announce Okeechobee dam, and he had nothing to do with it.
Judicial Activism
Trump also hit out at Democrats over the Justice Kavanaugh accuser who came forward earlier on Nov. 3 to admit that she had lied about being raped by Kavanaugh.“They [Democrats] tried to destroy a great man with an incredible family,” Trump said. “Could you imagine if this man, who people predicted would be a supreme court justice ten years ago … didn’t get the job because of that?”
“But she admitted it never happened, she never met him,“ Trump said. ”This is disgraceful.”
Trump said that Andrew Gillum as governor would “destroy Florida.”
“They’ll impose socialism on the state of Florida ... welcome to Venezuela. And they’ll erase America’s borders,” Trump continued. “Ron stands 100% with the men and women of law enforcement. Gillem wants to abolish ICE.”
Promises
“I’ll protect Florida’s cities by standing with the men and women or law enforcement,“ DeSantis told the crowd. ”I’m not going to attack them, like Andrew Gillum has, I’m not going to sign an anti-police pledge.”In a jab at Gillum, he noted that “Tallahassee has the highest crime in Florida. No wonder they had the highest murders in their history last year.”
Continuing on from Trump’s comments on Justice Kavanaugh, DeSantis said, “I will appoint solid constitutionalists to our state supreme court, similarly to how the President has appointed people to our federal courts. We can end judicial activism in Florida one month into my term.”
The president finished up by calling for unity to return power to the American people.
“Loyal citizens like you helped build this country and together we are taking back our country—returning power to you, the American people,” Trump said.
